Hayabusa2 has been orbiting Ryugu since mid-2018 to find the perfect spot for its touchdown. It took over a day for the probe to descend from its orbit, but the contact itself lasted only for a second. The video below shows the event at five times its actual speed:

JAXA plans to use the spacecraft to fire an explosive into the asteroid sometime during the first week of April. That will create a crater near Ryugu’s equator and kick up more fragments Hayabusa2 can collect when it touches down again in May. Its ground team plans to start observing the second touchdown site later this month.